The Sankt Petersburg Chess Federation team took first place on tiebreaks in a dramatic last round. Despite losing their first match of the event, they were lucky that Malakhit could not beat the SHSM ”Our Hopes”.

Peter Svidler, the first board of the champions, obtained a winning position against Baadur Jobava, but was not able to convert it effectively and ended up drawing in 48 moves. The match was decided on the last board, where Ivan Popov beat Maxim Matlakov with white in a sharp struggle.

This result gave Malakhit the chance to take clear first place with a win over SHSM ”Nashe Nasledie”. The young promise Daniil Dubov from the SHSM got a win against Viktor Bologan in 32 moves to put pressure on the favorites. Only Alexander Grischuk - who had a great tournament achieving a 2980 rating performance – did his job and defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi, but this was only enough to tie the match.

SPb Chess Fed and Malakhit finished with the same amount of match points, but the individual results decided who would take the first prize.

/ taken from chessdom.com /

See complete results of Russian Team Championship 2013

Summary of Russian Team Championship 1992-2013

Breaking news, Athens, April 1st, 2013 Shocking news come from FIDE secretariat in Athens. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, FIDE president, revealed FIDE Board most surprising decision on Monday. The press conference was held, where Mr. Ilyumzhinov relucantly admitted that the Chess Olympiads, the oldest, biggest and most prestiguous event in the chess world cease to exist.

- That was nothing like an easy challenge, be we were left no choice - explained Ilyumzhinov with a sad voice. - Chess Olympiads means almost 100 years of tradition, but they are simply too big and too expensive to match contemporary expectations. We just cannot afford it. Maybe 20 or 30 teams send professionals to the Olympiads. But how about the rest? They are just too weak to take care.

- But that's not all - Ilyumzhinov statement becomes more offensive - to me it no more makes any sense to organize "top-level" worldwide events. Look what these guys are doing?! Carlsen and Kramnik claim to be WCh contenders and they lose badly game by game. They were both overpowered in the last round of the Candidates. This could never happen in the era of the Soviet Union. I'm quite disguised with the level of play. Computers make humans think less and play more automatically. We have to consider longer time controls. -

The decision on wiping out the Olympiads from the chess calendar is effective at once. That means there will be no Olympiad in Tromsoe in 2014 nor in Azerbaijan in 2016. The organizers have not yet expressed their position on the issue.

So it seems that the series lasted for 85 years (1927-2012). It has not been yet decided whether the Hamilton-Russel cup would stay in Armenia, the recent champions, forever.

See the all-time summary of R.I.P. FIDE Chess Olympiads



Update April 2nd - April Fools' Day! The Olympiads are and will be continued hopefully forever. Stay calm and smile :):)

Ukraine became the independent nation only in 1993 but they had ever been strong in chess in the era of the Soviet Union (Boleslavsky, Geller, Alburt). The team championship is just about to celebrate its 20th anniversory. Even though the prestige of the annual team championship played in Alushta is nowhere close to the level manifested by the top Ukrainian players (Ivanchuk never participated, Karjakin, Efimenko, Ponomariov just a few times in the past) it is still interesting competition. Moreover, it has had little, if any, online coverage.

Today we fill the gap with the major support of GM Mikhail Golubev, who has been compiling broad results from early 2000s. You may want to study early editions with the two horse race between the teams from Donetsk and Kharkiv, followed by series of successes of Kyiv chess teams. An inspiring one might be the 2006 championship, the only one that brought Lviv to the glory. Or maybe the most fascinating one was in 2004, when top four teams tied on match points so the podium was to be determined on a basis of tie-breaking.

Please note - results from 1993-1998 are missing! HELP

>> The summary of Ukrainian Team Chess Championship <<

The city of Astana in Kazakhstan hosted the Women's World Chess Team Championship from March 2nd to 12 in the Duman Hotel in Astana. Ten best teams in the world participated: China, Russia, Ukraine, USA, India, France, Turkey, Georgia, Rumania and Kazakhstan. Each team consisted of five players, with four playing in each of the nine rounds of this round robin tournament. Time control was 90 minutes per 40 moves and thirty minutes until the end of the game plus 30 seconds increment per move.

In the ninth round of WWTC Ukraine drew all four games against Russia – all finished peacefully after 31 or 32 moves (above board one with IM Valentina Gunina, 2505, playing GM Kateryna Lahno, 2547). China outplayed India 2.5-1.5 score – Ju Wenjun defeated Eesha Karavade (picture above) while other games finished in a draw. The fight between France and Turkey finished in favor of France. Kubra Ozturk (picture above) made a draw against Nino Maisuradze, while Turkey lost the rest of the games. As a result, French team finished on the ninth place, Turkey in tenth. The match Romania versus the USA finished in a draw and both teams finished the tournament in the second half of the table. A tough match between Kazakhstan and Georgia finished in favor of the latter. Nana Dzagnidze outplayed Guliskhan Nakhbaeva but Abdumalik Zansaya (picture above) defeated Nino Khurtsidze and equalized the score. The youngest player in the tournament (Zansaya) sacrificed a rook at the right moment and didn’t let her opponent escape.

Ju Wenjun (7.0/9 with a 2651 performance, Irina Krush (7.0/9 = 2607), Tan Zhongyi (7.0/9 = 2570), Natalia Zhukova (6.0/8 = 2500) and Olga Girya (6.5/8 = 2522) showed the best results on boards 1–5.

/ taken from www.chessbase.com /

>> Complete results of Astana 2013 Women's World Team Championship <<

>> View the summary of Women's World Team Championship 2007-2013 <<

The Chess Olympiads photo album has been updated and 2012 Istanbul photos were added. Now photos of virtually all of participants of recent five Olympiads are there.

The unique collection was compiled by the Italian Giorgio Gozzi. Please find the link below and enjoy collection of ca. 5000 snapshots.

Chess Olympiads 2004-2012 Photo Album

The City of Hoogeveen, Netherlands became World Cities Chess Champion after beating Baku, Azerbaijan 2.5-1.5 in the finals of the knockout tournament 21-28 December 2012 in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. In the match for 3rd place, Novi Sad (Serbia) beat Tashkent (Uzbekistan). All in all there were 24 city teams. Top seeds were Paris (2677), Hoogeveen (2666) and Lviv (2659).

This event is held at two-year intervals, with teams representing cities (maximum one city per country). National federations are eligible to play with their national team members representing a city. The FIDE World Cities Championship is a sequel to the Chess Olympiad and Continental Cities Championships.

The Al Ain Chess Club of the United Arab Emirates Chess Federation has committed to organize the World Cities Championship for the Sheikh Zayed Cup for five times until 2020. The prize fund for the 2012 edition is $150,000.


See the results of the 2012 World Cities Chess Championship

Top seeds Russia emerged clear winners after the ninth and final round of the TATA 14th IBCA Chess Olympiad for the Blind 2012 at Hotel Le Royal Meridien, Chennai here today. Russia finished their engagements with 15 match points, clinching the team Gold. Taking the Silver and Bronze team medals were Ukraine and Spain respectively. Germany with 14 match points, tied for second spot with Ukraine and Spain, but finished fourth on tie-breaks.

India "A" went down 1.5 - 2.5 to Germany in a close match, losing their medal chances. But the silver lining was the performance of Kishan Gangolli who took the individual Gold medal in the third board. Undefeated Kishan came up with an impressive show, scoring 7.5 points from 9 rounds. With six wins and three draws, Kishan stood like a rock in the middle boards, and dictated India "A" team's fortunes. Support from Swapanil Shah, Darpan Inani and Makwana Ashvin helped India "A" to the fifth spot. In the history of Chess Olympiad for the blind, the fifth spot here is India's best.

Top seeds Russia came up with a powerful performance scoring a 3-1 victory over United Kingdom. Victories in boards two, three and four clinched the issue in favor of Russia. International Master Colin Crouch reduced the margin for United Kingdom defeating International Master Meshkov Yuri in a hard fought game. The win helped Crouch clinch the top board Silver medal.

India "B" finished the last outing holding Turkey to a 2-2 draw., sharing the 18th place.

Final standings:
1 Russia 15 match points, 2-4 Ukraine, Spain, Germany 14, 5 India 11, 6-9 Poland, United Kingdom, Venezuela, Croatia 10, 10-15 Kazakhastan, Serbia, Bulgaria, Columbia, Romania, Slovenia 9, 16-19 Sweden, Iran, India "B", Turkey 8, 20-21 Slovakia, Italy 7, 22 South Africa 6, 23 France 5, 24 Denmark 4 25 The Netherlands 1

Board winners:
Board 1 - IM Pulvett Daniel (Venezuela)
Board 2 - Shepelev Igor (Ukraine)
Board 3 - Kishan Gangolli (India "A")
Board 4 - Yatsishin Ivan (Ukraine)
Board 5 - FM Babarykin Stanislav (Russia)

/ taken from http://www.fide.com /

See Blind Olympiads summary

Asian Chess Federation president Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifah Al Nahyan opening the Asian Nations Cup Chess Team Championship in Zao Zhuang, Shandong Province, China. Fourteen men’s teams are participating in the 9-round Swiss Open. Ten women’s teams are competing in the 9-round Round Robin. Visit chess-results.com for pairings and standings.

Defending champion India whitewashed Yemen as three teams scored 4-0 against their opponents in the opening round of the Asian Nations Cup in Zao Zhuang, China. GMs Krishnan Sasikiran, Pentala Hari Krishna, Abhijeet Gupta and Gopal Narayanan got the full point for India.

Vietnam shutout Korea on victories of GM Le Quang Liem and Dao Thein Hai and IMs Nguyen Duc Hoa and Nguyen Van Huy.

Top seed China 1 blanked Iraq 4-0 on wins by GMs Wang Hao, Wang Yue, Ding Lirenk and Yu Yangyi. Iran blanked Hong Kong 4-0 on wins by GMEhsan Ghaem Maghami and Asghar Golizadeh and IMs Alavismoghaddam and Dereni Porya.

Singapore followed suit and beat Chinese Taipei 4-0 as IMs Kevin Goh Wei Min and Chan Peng Kong and FM Chan Yi Ren Daniel and Iskandar Bin Abdullah scored.

In the Women’s division, China 1 beat China 3 with 4-0, Iran edged Vietnam 2.5-1.5. WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan, playing top board for Iran, beat WGM Pham Le Thao Nguyen. On board 2, WGM Nguyen Thi Thanh An of Vietnam drew with WIM Khademalsharieh Sarasadat of Iran. WGM Pham Bich Ngoc beat WIM Ghader Pour Sharesteh of Iran to tie the score but on board 4, WIM Mitra Hejazipour beat WIM Nguyen Thi Mai Hung to seal the victory.

/ taken from fide.com /